Following its debut in April 2020, The Digital Swiss 5 second edition will take place as a hybrid real-world-meets-digital cycling event. Held in the Zurich Saalsporthalle, Switzerland, from November 19-21, 2021, the event will be in-person for three days and simultaneously streamed worldwide.
Back in 2020, with the limited availability of live sport due to global COVID-19 lockdowns, The Digital Swiss 5 brought the world of sport back to life. Co-CEO of event organiser Cycling Unlimited, Joko Vogel, remembers “The teams, the riders, the sponsors and of course the fans, were craving live sport.
“With the newly created format of a digital race series, we were able to provide all parties with an ideal platform giving 700 million fans worldwide the opportunity to see cycling at the highest level, either online or on TV.”
Version 2.0 of The Digital Swiss 5 will see elite competitors will line up against each other in front of an enthusiastic crowd, animated by a DJ with live commentary in Zurich’s Saalsporthalle.
The professional cyclists will participate in the event as a team per nation. Each team will be made up of a maximum of six riders, with at least one female professional road cyclist, one male professional road cyclist as well as one male and one female guest cyclist.
The guest cyclists are professionals from the worlds of triathlon, mountain biking, cyclo-cross or track cycling. Three of the maximum six team members will ride the events in the Saalsporthalle in Zurich. The other team members will participate digitally from home.
The first elite riders will be announced shortly via digital-swiss-5.ch.
Digital cycling platform ROUVY aims to ensure that the virtual cycling experience is even more realistic. It is now possible to draft the digital rider in front, giving a more realistic cycling experience than in 2020. In addition, ROUVY ads that the avatars, i.e., the digital professionals, have been further refined and now move in a way that real cyclists do.
“The race series has been further developed in all areas and offers new potential for the cyclists and thus more entertainment for spectators,” added Joko Vogel at Cycling Unlimited.
The Digital Swiss 5 2.0 will also offer a limited number of amateur riders the opportunity to ride the five stages in the run-up to the professional races in Zurich’s Saalsporthalle.
Just like the pros, the 100 or so amateur cyclists will ride all five races on the ROUVY interactive platform on their own smart trainers. Parallel to the amateur race in the Saalsporthalle, the same race will also take place digitally online with a large number of participants expected worldwide.
www.digital-swiss-5.ch
www.cycling-unlimited.ch
www.rouvy.com
